October 18, 2008

On Very Short Stories

I've figured out why I'm very fond of short stories—especially the 300–1500 word range—it's from years of writing short journalistic pieces. Whether in the form of a poem, column, essay, letter to the editor, or terse pay-by-the-word ad content, or blog entry, brevity is often the soul of expression.So when an article by Sandra Seamans on "flash fiction" atBookspot Central came to my attention, I was thrilled to read about its popularity in the mystery genre.Any short fiction demands succinct delivery, all the more so with short-short fiction. In fact, there's a newish form, the six-word biography (see article in New Yorker). It was reputedly started by Hemingway, who is said to have written the tragic “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”Try it out and let me know what you think!

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Barbara DaCosta—Writer & Author

Barbara DaCosta writes for children and adults alike. Her children's picture book debut is Nighttime Ninja,illustrated by Caldecott Award-winning artist Ed Young (Little, Brown 2012) .Her debut as a mystery writer came with the short story "Cabin 6" in the anthology Resort to Murder, edited by Minnesota Crime Wave. Meanwhile, she's putting the finishing touches on her novel Death by the Depot—the tale of a murder, the search for a missing man, and the uncovering of a nest of crime at a nursing home—features Thea Franco, a hardworking, overly curious, detail-oriented researcher with a stable of quirky clients---divas, dealers, teachers, historians, waitresses, and lawyers. Sometimes, though, Thea finds she’s taken on way more than she can handle….

• By the way, DaCosta rhymes with "the coast-ah," and is spelled DaCosta (i.e., not Da Costa, Dacosta, or DeCosta).• You can reach Barbara at barbaradacostaauthor at gmail dot com (substitute symbols).

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